Originally Posted by
Denti
Already was in the NG (700-900). If you paid for it that is. But i believe the spoilers are now fly by wire.
I'm pretty sure that is incorrect. What is the point in roll out guidance for Cat IIIB if there are only two autopilots, limiting it to Cat IIIA? As for FBW spoilers, that'll be a cost and weight saving measure, getting rid of the old mechanical spoiler mixer unit. It won't make any difference to the pilots, but I'll bet the overall handling will be even worse than the NG; the Classic flew nicely, but the NG was horrible - bad harmonisation with heavy and sluggish roll but a bit twitchy in pitch, far less stable than the old airframe and badly behaved in the flare (prone to floating, but suddenly dropping if you get below VREF+5, an unpleasant characteristic of supercritical wings). Recent developments are doing wonders for performance, but handling is suffering badly. But who cares? SOPs dictate the use of automatics, so the industry can just blame lazy pilots who don't practice hand flying for the shoddy handling characteristics of modern airframes...